Esprit fiscal-year profit soars, sales fall off

Hong Kong -- Esprit Holdings Ltd. reported Wednesday that net income of the fiscal year ended June 30 surged to $112.6 million, compared with $10.2 million the year before, boosted by one-time writeoffs for store closures.

Sales dropped 11% to $3.89 billion from $4.35 billion.

The fashion retailer embarked on an aggressive turnaround last year after recording a 98% profit decline in the year through June. It exited its North America business, is closing retail operations in three European countries and is investing more than $2.32 billion over the next four years to rebuild its brand. Following the unexpected departures of both its chairman and CEO, Esprit announced that Jose Manuel Martinez – a former executive of chief rival Zara parent Inditex SA – would be the company’s new CEO. Martinez began his tenure on Wednesday.

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